GOP chief set to ask justices for Katz e-mail

Fight over Corzine's privilege continues

Friday, January 23, 2009

BY CLAIRE HEININGER

Star-Ledger Staff

The chairman of New Jersey's Republican Party said
yesterday he will ask the state Supreme Court to order the
release of e-mail messages exchanged by Gov. Jon Corzine and
his ex-girlfriend, Carla Katz, while she was a labor leader.

In the latest volley in the politically charged case, Tom
Wilson said he will appeal an appellate court decision that
the e-mails do not have to be made public. The appeal will
be filed by Feb. 2, said Mark Sheridan, Wilson's
attorney.

The high court would then determine whether to take up
the case. If the court decided to hear it, the case could
stretch deep into the Democratic governor's re-election
year.

There is no specific time frame for the court to make its
decision, said Winnie Comfort, a spokeswoman for the
judiciary. She declined to comment on whether Chief Justice
Stuart Rabner, who previously served as Corzine's chief
counsel and state attorney general, would recuse himself if
the court accepted the case.

The appellate ruling on Jan. 12 reversed a lower-court
order for Corzine to release hundreds of pages of
correspondence between him, his aides and Katz -- then
president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034 --
during a period that included state worker contract talks.

The appeals court found Corzine had properly asserted
executive privilege. Releasing the e-mails could "have
a chilling effect on the governor's willingness to
solicit advice, or to accept unsolicited advice in the
future," it said. The judges said Corzine's and
Katz's previous comments about the negotiations and
their outcome were enough to satisfy the public interest.

Wilson disagreed but said he would forgo an appeal, allowing executive privilege to be upheld, if Corzine voluntarily released the e-mails by yesterday. The governor did not, prompting Wilson to argue, "He's abusing executive privilege to hide actions he knows the public would find unacceptable."...